Grand Prix Practice

Belle and I will be going to a USDAA trial on Sunday, so I wanted to get in a little Grand Prix practice. 

I spent an hour setting up this Grand Prix course designed by Frank Holik.  Once I began walking it, it seemed very familiar. 

Before running the course, I came inside to search through last years videos, and sure enough, I had set up this course last July.  I watched the video and was appalled at how much shouting I did while running the course.  I was hoping to run the course a little differently today by opting for a rear cross instead of a front cross between 5 and 6, and by running on the backside of the #16 tunnel.  My first idea worked quite well.  The second, not so much.

Dusty had A-frame problems, so I devoted most of our training time to that issue.  With Belle, I made the same mistake this morning that I made back in July.  I took the dogwalk/tunnel discrimination for granted and Belle ended up taking the wrong obstacle.  Additionally, the course highlighted the need to work on Belle's teeter performance.



I decided I would mow the field and then set up a second Grand Prix course.  This one was designed by Janet Gauntt.

By the time I finished setting this course up, there was only enough time to run it once.  We had a slight bobble between 3 and 4, but not enough to be called for a refusal.  (I was concentrating on getting into position to handle the 270, and moved across the box a smidge too soon.)  Belle and I got as far as #11 before we had an off-course.  We started again from the A-frame and this time I stopped soon enough to let Belle know the next obstacle was #12.  The rest of the course ran very smoothly.